Dawn of the Dreamsmith (The Raven's Tale Book 1) (79 page)

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“The Charnel Arms,” Cole read aloud, peering up at the peeling sign hanging from the squat, tumbledown building. The three of them were swiftly ushered though a rickety door and into the gloom beyond. “Sounds charming.”

“Be on your guard,” Raven murmured so that only they could hear. “Our captors may have promised us safe passage, but there’s no guarantee the same holds true for whoever leads them.”

It had taken a short while for their entourage to guide them through the maze of back-alleys, away from the clean wide streets and into areas where it was clear city watch patrols were the exception and not the norm.

Despite the late hour, and in flagrant disregard for the curfew, the smoke-filled tavern was crowded. Gangs of surly drinkers gathered around chipped and uneven tables, eyeing them with suspicion as they entered. At the sight of the street-children, though, their attention returned to their drinks. In one corner of the room, a fight broke out, blood flying as two men went at each other with knives. A few moments later, both were dragged past them by a tall, powerfully built bouncer and hurled into the street.

“Pretty quiet night, considerin’,” said Jax, grinning.

“To think you put me up at that stuffy old inn,” Cole chimed in. “If only we’d known a place like this was available.”

Caspian glanced nervously around them. “I see that numerous brushes with death haven’t harmed your sense of humour.”

Cole thought about it for a few moments. “I suppose you just get used to it after a while,” he replied.

Raven sighed. “You’d better take us to whoever we’re here to see,” she told their escort.

The other street-children melted away like shadows before the sun, while the shaven-haired boy led them past the tables towards the rear of the tavern. As they approached a door leading to one of the back rooms, he turned to Cole. “If I was you I’d keep your jests to yerself from now on,” he said. “Begrum ain’t the jolly sort.” With that, he knocked tentatively upon the door.

There was an indistinct bark from within, and Jax gestured for them to enter. Inside, the room was dim, lit by a solitary candle set on a wooden table. The only other furniture visible within its glow was a chair occupied by a heavily bearded man. He did not look up as they entered. His attention was entirely focused on the apple in his hand, which he was peeling meticulously with a long, sharp-looking knife.

“Three little fish.” His voice was gruff. “A fool, a monk and a woman that acts like a man. A right queer catch you’ve brought me, Jax.” At a flick of his hand, the shaven-headed boy fled the room, closing the door behind him.

“How did he know I was a monk?” Cole whispered to Raven.

The bearded man lifted his eyes at last, and regarded them from beneath a pair of bushy eyebrows. With deliberate care, he sliced a chunk from the fruit and placed it in his mouth. “I’d be careful what words fall from that tongue, boy,” he said after a long pause. “It wouldn’t be the first to end up upon my floor.”

“Begrum, I assume?” Raven let his earlier insult pass without comment. She had heard worse over the years. The man’s dark, deep-set eyes flicked from Cole to her. “You have me at a disadvantage.” He cut another lump from the apple. “For now.”

“Why did you bring us here?”

The man chewed slowly, pondering the question. “Firstly, to thank you,” he said eventually. “You took care of the devil that did in my lad... and all the others.”

“How can you be so sure?” Raven crossed her arms and adopted a defiant stance.

Begrum grunted. “Because Jax is a good boy who follows orders.”

“It wasn’t a man,” said a quiet voice. All three others in the room turned to look at Caspian. The young man’s cheeks flushed.

“So what was it?” Begrum did not so much as raise an eyebrow at this new information, though he seemed rattled. Clearly he was a man that, despite his chosen surroundings, did not like to be kept in the dark.

Caspian shrugged. “A creature, made of metal,” he replied. “Beyond that, I cannot say.”
Cannot or will not?
Raven wondered, thinking about the strange cylinder he had taken from the body. And then there was the matter of his knowing how to dispatch the creature.
Has he encountered them before?

Begrum chewed thoughtfully for a few moments, considering his words. “But it’s dead?” Raven nodded, and he appeared satisfied. “Then you did the city a favour, but don’t expect to be paid for it. It’s a puzzle, but we have ways of getting to the bottom of it.”

“Good, well, we’ll not bother sending you a bill in that case,” said Cole. “But if that’s all then we’d better be going.”

With a sudden jerk of his arm, the bearded man slammed the point of his knife into the tabletop. “None that come in here leave until I says so,” he growled.

“Is this how you treat all those new to the city?” Raven asked, unimpressed by the threat.

Begrum smiled, an oddly out-of-place expression on his brutish face. “Only those that interest me.” He worked the blade from the table and cut another slice of apple. “Strange stories reach my ears from time to time,” he continued, through a mouthful of the fruit. “Why, only this morning, my little mice saw the old Talgarth carriage pull into town, with two guards no less. Now, we knows those old skinflints of old; many a young lad of mine has dipped their fingers into a Talgarth purse and come away even poorer. Stranger still, once they were out of sight of the gates, the guards wander off. It was almost like that pair was trying to sneak into the city unnoticed. Would you know anything about that?”

“Perhaps those guards had just reached the end of their service with the Tagarths.” Raven’s face gave nothing away.

“Could be,” Begrum conceded. “Still, it’s very unusual for that old buzzard to willingly let go of anything she’s paid for once she’s got her claws into it. But perhaps it is as you say.” He leaned back in his chair and fixed her with his gaze. “I do sit up and take notice though when those same guards break curfew to sneak a peek at that bloody tower. And here we are.” His eyes took in each of them in turn. “Why did you come to my city?” he asked, his voice soft yet no less threatening for that.

“We’re thinking of joining the Order,” Cole blurted. “My friend here joined up last month and wrote to me about it, and I thought it sounded like fun.”

The bearded man smiled pleasantly. “The next lie that falls from those lips will be your last, my lad,” he said mildly. “I repeat the question. It would be wise to answer truthfully.”

Raven considered offering up another explanation, but she decided instead to roll the dice. “We seek entrance to the tower.” While the bearded man met her gaze, her hand slowly crept down to the hilt of the blade hanging at her belt.

“Why?”

“The Archon is planning something big. We don’t know exactly what, but we intend to stop it.” She shrugged. “It could even be happening now. By holding us here you risk allowing him to succeed.”

“What makes you think this?” The bearded man’s tone was ice.

Raven laughed. “Have you looked at the sky recently? Between the lightning storm sitting right above his tower and the green fire shooting up every night, it’s quite a show. What about all the happy, smiling people with green gems around their neck?”

“There’s also the small matter of a monastery to the north, slaughtered to a man at his command,” Cole added. There was no hint of mockery in his tone this time.

Begrum rubbed the sides of his mouth thoughtfully. “I hadn’t heard about that.” He seemed troubled. “The rest of what you say is true. But you’re wrong about one thing... it all goes down tomorrow night, not now.”

“How can you be so sure?” Raven asked, her brow furrowed.

“Here I thought I was the one asking the questions.” Begrum’s fingers tapped the wooden tabletop. “My little mice have heard tell that the emperor, Max the Great himself, will be visiting the tower tomorrow. My gut tells me that’s when whatever the Order has been cooking up will happen. And my gut is never wrong.”

Raven glanced at Cole, who shrugged and nodded. “It... seems a reasonable assumption,” she admitted. “All the more reason to release us. The tower is well guarded and it will take time to come up with a plan to gain entry.”

Begrum stared at her for a few moments, before suddenly banging on the table with his fist. A heartbeat later, Jax pushed open the door. “You can leave whenever you wish,” the bearded man said with a sweeping gesture. But before they could move, he added, “Or you could stay and we’ll work it out between us.”

Raven turned to face him. “Are you saying you want to help us?” She didn’t attempt to conceal her doubt. “You don’t strike me as the altruistic type. What’s your interest in this?”

Begrum glanced at the shaven-headed boy. “Go and fetch him,” he muttered. When the urchin scampered away, he turned back to the three of them. “You think just because we’re thieves and cutpurses that we don’t care about our city? Our country? A strong Empire is best for all of us. I’m as patriotic as the next man.”

“Not to mention that purses become a lot lighter in times of trouble,” said Caspian. Raven was impressed with Cole’s old friend; despite his nervous disposition he seemed determined not to be cowed by the thief-master.

“If you mean to insult me you’ll need to try a lot harder,” the bearded man replied dismissively. “That’s one reason, but not the only one. If some stuck-up noble or fat merchant decides to follow the green star, that’s their look out. But my little lads and lasses are going missing, and that bothers me.”

“What do you mean, missing?” Raven asked.

“One day they’re running around like good little mice, the next they get nabbed and don’t come back.”

“Perhaps they get sent to prison,” Cole offered.

Begrum shook his head. “Remember that one lad I mentioned before?” He drew his thumb across his neck. “Certain whispers reached me and I paid good gold to spring him from the Clink. That was weeks ago. He was the last one to come out from there, and as best we can tell, none are left inside. A couple of my lads swear they’ve seen some of our lost lambs going in and coming out of the tower... but no sign of chains, save the silver one around their necks.”

Cole and Raven shared a knowing look. “We believe you,” she said. “The question is, what are we going to do about it?”

Before he could answer, the room’s door banged open and two others entered. The one standing in the doorframe with his hand resting firmly on the other’s shoulder could have been the twin of the bouncer she had seen earlier. The man who was pushed into the room by this giant was bearded, like the thief-master, but fairer of face. Unlike the tavern’s other patrons, his clothes were scrupulously neat. As he came into the room, his face lit up with a broad grin and he slapped the young man standing beside Cole on the back. “Caspian!” he cried. “What the blazes are you doing here?” Then, when he caught sight of the figure next to him, the man’s mouth hung open in surprise. “Cole! Is it really you? I had thought that your journey might perhaps bring you this far, but it is good to see you.”

“Captain Brandt!” Cole beamed and clasped the older man’s hand. “Cas told me that you’d made it to the city. I wish I’d known you were coming this way, it would have made my journey a lot easier.”

“Don’t count on it,” the captain replied with a grim smile. He turned his gaze upon Raven. “And who’s this?”

Over the next minute or so, they made the necessary introductions. It seemed the captain had stumbled into the tavern earlier that night in the course of his intelligence-gathering, and the nature of his questions had aroused the thieves’ suspicions. Fortunately his incarceration had been brief and not too unpleasant.

Begrum seemed irritated by the display. “Well isn’t this a heart-warming reunion.” His tone was withering. “Shall we continue with business before I bring my supper back up?” When they quieted, he smiled thinly. “Have you any thoughts about how you will get inside the tower?”

“A couple,” Raven replied. “When I went to the plaza, I saw several iron grates in the ground. If there’s a sewer, then it’s likely that it connects to the tower and...” she tailed off as Begrum sat shaking his head.

“We had a similar notion,” he told her. “I sent a few of my little mice into the tunnels to investigate, but it’s no good. There is a way in, but it’s blocked off by steel bars as thick as your arm, set deep inside the rock. It would take days to cut through.”

Raven was undeterred. “Then we climb. We’ll find a rope and grapple and...”

“And you’ll fall and break your necks,” the bearded man finished. “The outside of the tower is smoother than my arse, and it’s a hundred feet or more until the first open window. Even if you don’t fall, the guards will see you and shoot you down before you reach it.”

This time, Raven felt slightly put out. “It feels like you already have a plan in mind,” she said, crossing her arms again. “Why don’t you share it with us?”

“Well, it seems to me that the only way you’ll get into that tower is through the front door,” he replied, holding her gaze.

“That’s your plan?” Raven threw up her hands. “There are twenty guards at least, and probably more inside. And only four of us?” She glanced at her companions. The captain was likely able to handle himself, but Cole was raw at best and his skinny friend was a completely unknown quantity. “It’s suicide,” she said firmly. “We’d need an army to get in through the front.”